Biography

Lilyan Chauvin

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French character actress Lilyan Chauvin may be one of those actors or actresses whose face you know without knowing their names. Chauvin was a long time veteran of the European stage, and was adept at playing strict, but sometimes loving characters. To horror fans, she might be best known as the sinister Mother Superior in Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), but her career started back in the 1950s when she was plucked from the stage to appear in small minor roles in motion pictures. One notable film was with John Wayne in North to Alaska (1960). For about thirty years, Chauvin was one of the busiest character actresses in Hollywood, appearing in over forty films as well as on television. Her many film credits include Private Benjamin (1980), Predator 2 (1990), No Place to Hide (1992), Universal Soldier (1992) as Jean-Claude Van Damme's mother, and most recently Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.
- IMDb mini biography by: Blythe379@cs.com

Other than her native French, she was proficient in Spanish, German, Italian and Russian as well as English.
Was a Technical Advisor/Dialogue Coach at MGM and worked as a Dialogue Supervisor and Drama coach at Warner Brothers. She taught French to many actors, including Lauren Hutton and Richard Gere in American Gigolo (1980).
Born in Paris, her mother, Emilia Speltiens Zemoz, was French, and her father, Pantion Pierre Zemoz, was Italian.
Working in broadcasting in France in her early years, she moved to New York on her 21st birthday and became a US citizen. She studied with Uta Hagen and at the Actors Studio in New York. To improve her English, Chauvin attended the Berlitz school of languages and took in American movies nearly every day.
Some of her former acting students include Raquel Welch, Suzanne Somers, Kin Shriner, Kevin Nealon and Wil Shriner.

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